A woman from a village in southern Russia fought off a wolf with her bare hands and killed it with an axe.

Aishat Maksudova, from Novo Biryuzyak village in the Dagestan region, was in a group of villagers herding cows and sheep.

The 56-year-old heard the cry of a calf being attacked and rushed to scare off the wolf but it turned on her.

"I was not even frightened. I stood like this, holding an axe like this. And the wolf, with an open mouth suddenly jumped on me. Jumped like that. The wolf clawed at my leg and I wanted to hit him with the axe," Ms Maksudova said.

In a reversal of the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale where a granddaughter saves her grandmother from being eaten by a wolf, this Russian grandmother took fate in her own hands.

"When I raised my arm up like this, the wolf was just holding my hand. Trying to claw my hand. I wanted to open his mouth and put my fist all the way there, all the way to his throat. But I could not open him.

"So I just left my hand, and the wolf was just clawing into it, pulling on it, pulling away like this. And then I took the axe and hit him on his head," she said.

Ms Maksudova needed hospital treatment after being bitten.

Her fellow villagers have vowed to hunt down other wolves in the area.